The fencing problem maths coursework

4. Conclusion (5 minutes, whole group) Ask students, What kinds of ratios represent the measurement activity that you just did? Have students describe the ratios that they created, such as comparing their lunge distances to one another, in the form of a fraction or A:B. Ask students, How is distance a variable in fencing? (Answer: The difference between the distance between two fencers and one fencer's lunge distance is a variable. Fencers want to keep the distance between them and their opponent greater than their opponent's lunge distance. They also want their lunge distance to be greater.)

How often do you serve up a worksheet of word problems on division, for example, directly after studying division? This could be one of the biggest barriers to your pupils actually reading the word problems and thinking carefully about what is needed. Most will have cottoned on to the fact that the questions are all going to be division, will not pay a lot of attention to the words, divide the numbers and move onto the next one. Why bother visualising the scenario and thinking about the words if your teacher has already told you in big letters at the top of the worksheet that they are all ‘ DIVISION WORD PROBLEMS ’?!